An Army Of Cyber Kids Is What We Need Now

The internet age has brought great benefits but has also created new vulnerabilities, and when it comes to defending our national — and personal — security, perhaps an army of cyber kids is what we need now.

The Cold War is long over and the idea of major powers fighting a war against each other — nuclear or conventional — is almost unthinkable, but peace and harmony seems as far away as ever.

Whether it’s Russian interference in the U.S. election or the Brexit vote, hacking into Uber and other major corporations, the WannaCry ransomware apparently originating in North Korea, or Islamist groups spreading their message of hate, warfare - and terrorism - is increasingly being conducted via the internet.

Western governments have generally appeared flat-footed in the face of such attacks, but a new scheme launched in the U.K. promises a proactive response to the threats.

The Cyber Discovery initiative aims to identify and train the next generation of cyber security experts, the very people who will be able to ward future attacks.

And it is aiming to start them young. Children as young as 14 will be enrolled in the program, which aims to ‘plug the U.K.’s cyber security gap by tapping into young and undiscovered talent’, according to its backers.

An initial online assessment aims to identify suitable students, who will then embark on an expert-created extra curricular cyber security program based on gamified learning, covering digital forensics, defending against web attacks and cryptography and programming and ethics.

Some of the course will be delivered online, but there will also be face-to-face learning and real world challenges, while participants will also be encouraged to take part in after-school clubs and will attend ‘camps’ with their peers.

‘Cyber security is an industry that’s still in its infancy, meaning very few young people know and understand that there are lucrative careers awaiting them in the field,’ said Debbie Tunstall, head of education at Cyber Security Challenge UK, one of the partners in the program.

‘With a critical skills gap looming and the cybercrime threat growing, we need to educate about cyber security while individuals are still young, piquing their interest in future cyber careers and, as a result, filing the pipeline of talent,’ she added.

The scheme is also backed by the U.K. government, as well the research and education organization the SANS Institute, online learning platform FutureLearn and communications giant BT.

Mark Hughes, CEO of BT Security, said: ‘The cyber-crime industry is getting bigger, stronger and more sophisticated in its techniques of attack, so it’s vital that we start engaging and encouraging young people in developing their cyber skills now.’

The program aims to equip the next generation of cyber security professionals with the skills they need to beat cyber-criminals, he added.

The scheme is aimed at students aged 14 to 18, incentivized with the promise of free training supplemented by access to games, as well as a potentially lucrative career in cyber security.

Cyber Discovery is comprised of four stages. After passing the initial selection tool, students will go onto three further stages before being invited to live events, where parents will be invited to see how much progress they have made.

After being trialled in England, it is expected to be introduced across the U.K. in subsequent years.

I’m a freelance journalist specializing in education. My career so far has taken in regional and national newspapers and magazines, including Forbes, The Daily Telegraph and the Guardian. A lot has changed since I started covering education as a wide-eyed junior reporter in...